How They Built a Million Dollar Company: Plantrepreneur Profile with Soltech

Growing Joy with Plants - Wellness Rooted in Nature, Houseplants, Gardening and Plant Care

Maria Failla- Happy Plant Lady and Author of Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness

Education, How To, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Home & Garden, Leisure

4.8 • 883 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2023

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Soltech has achieved remarkable success in recent years, growing from a small startup to a million-dollar business. For long-time listeners, you probably bought their grow lights already using my coupon code Bloom15, and I’m sure you love them as much as I do! And for those who haven’t, join me in this episode as we talk in-depth with Soltech’s founders and my dear plant friends—Chris, Mike, and Paul—about their remarkable journey, the challenges they overcame, and the strategies that propelled them to the pinnacle of success.

In this episode, we learn:

[06:13] Get to know the three people behind SolTech
[09:33] What is it like to create a multi-million dollar plant brand?
[11:28] Which came first, their friendship or the business?
[12:19] What role did plants play in their college lives?
[12:58] When did they realize the untapped potential and demand for high-quality grow lights
[15:58] The tale of Soltech grow lights
[19:17] Where can you find premium, handcrafted wind chimes that are perfect for gifting?
[24:03] Difficult sacrifices the founders had to make
[25:45] Living together and building Soltech
[26:52] What was their method of accountability and reinforcement for their shared vision?
[30:48] Reassuring signs of progress amid challenges and doubts
[34:19] How did community development become integral to Soltech?
[37:34] Low-cost strategies that resulted in significant results
[44:02] House plant grow lights vs. cannabis cultivation lights
[45:26] Why is manipulating the photosynthetic spectrum important in creating a full spectrum grow light?
[47:02] Why different plants require different colors in the spectrum
[49:12] New product launching soon: Grove LED bar light
[54:27] Tips for installing a grow light and ideal plant distance
[58:38] Obstacles and teachable moments
[01:08:13] What were some notable moments or achievements in the past year that Soltech's founders go "holy shit"?
[01:16:38] Where can you find Soltech on social media?

Mentioned in our conversation:

PRE-ORDER THE GROVE GROW BAR!

Curious about the ups and downs of starting a plant business?

Check out the full show notes and blog here!

PRE-ORDER THE GROVE GROW BAR!

Thank you to our episode sponsor:

Wind River Chimes

Bring more peace, serenity, and magic into your home with chimes. Wind River is a Virginia-based company creating premium handcrafted and hand-tuned wind chimes for over 35 years. If you are looking for a new way to grow joy in your life and find a moment of peace, a Wind River chime is the perfect addition for your home or garden. Plus, it's a perfect personalized gift for your loved ones!

Visit windriverchimes.com and use code GROWINGJOY to receive free engraving on all Corinthian Bells wind chimes.

Follow Soltech Solutions:

PRE-ORDER THE GROVE GROW BAR!

Follow Maria and Growing Joy:

Order my book: Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla, Illustrated by Samantha Leung

Join the Bloom and Grow Garden Party Community Platform & App AKA the plantiest and kindest corner of the internet! Get your FREE 2-week trial here!

Take the Plant Parent Personality Quiz (Get the perfect plants, projects and educational resources for YOUR Lifestyle)

Support Bloom and Grow Radio by becoming a Plant Friend on Patreon!

Instagram: @growingjoywithmaria

Tiktok: @growingjoywithmaria

Subscribe to the Growing Joy Youtube channel! /growingjoywithmaria

Website: www.growingjoywithmaria.com

Pinterest: @growingjoywithmaria

Our Sponsors:
* Check out BetterHelp: betterhelp.com/PLANTS
* Check out Manukora: manukora.com/BLOOM
* Check out Outdoor Electronics: www.google.com

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Occasionally I have done plant entrepreneur and for those of you that don't know that word it's
0:04.0	planty entrepreneurs profiles on this podcast where I have founders of different plant brands come on to
0:10.5	discuss how they started and built their companies.
0:13.0	But Plant Friends, I have never gotten to talk with founders of a million dollar plant brand.
0:19.0	Now, you might think that that million dollar plant brand title is going to make for a
0:24.3	shiny episode filled with unrelatable stories about venture capital funding and
0:29.1	filled with reasons that we can't turn our passion for plants into profit.
0:33.0	But you will find Plant Friends through this awe-inspiring interview, just how scrappy, innovative,
0:39.3	and inspiring three friends from a small town in Pennsylvania could be and how against all odds they were able to
0:45.3	create and build a company that has improved so many of our lives and the well-being of their community.
0:53.0	Soltec, the creators of the growlites that we know and love.
0:57.0	The founders of Soltec being my dear plant friends,
1:01.0	Chris, Mike, and Paul.
1:03.7	There is so much to the story
1:05.8	behind how these sleek modern growlites
1:08.3	that we all know and love were created,
1:11.2	and I promise you will leave this episode so inspired and for lack of a better plant pun
1:16.7	illuminated. Welcome to the Growing Joy Podcast where we not only learn how to care for plants successfully, but how to simply
1:24.9	and affordably use our plant babies to cultivate more joy in our lives.
1:29.2	I'm Maria, author of Growing Joy, The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness,
1:33.4	Speaker, podcaster, and most importantly, an epic plant killer turned happy plant lady.
1:39.2	On growing joy, you'll find conversations about plant care, plant community, and wellness through the lens of plants.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Maria Failla- Happy Plant Lady and Author of Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Maria Failla- Happy Plant Lady and Author of Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.